2021 (24 page)

‘Oh
, this just gets worse by the minute’ uttered Joan as she nervously ran her fingers through her hair.

‘Unfortunately, you’re right
, Jack’ admitted Stuart ‘although it goes very much against the grain for me to admit it, as I’m against killing any living creature. This animal/insect whatever it is though seems born out of pure evil. Why it could have stepped out of hell itself. Unfortunately, they must be killed before they kill all of us’ agreed Stuart as he nodded his head sadly.

‘Perhaps if we could at least give them a bloody nose they may disappear back to where they came from?’ suggested Jack.

‘Somehow I can’t see that ever happening’ commented Jenny as she stared down into the pit and watched the creature just scream at them
again.

‘If these things fight like ants
, they’ll just fight to the death won’t they?’ commented Jack as Stuart just held Jenny in his arms and pulled her back away from the pit.

‘I could do with
your help on this’ stated Joan as she began walking back towards the camp that had been set up just outside the creature’s own new dead zone.

‘That thing is terrifying
’ commented Jenny as she just looked back and shuddered before walking away even faster.

‘Yes
and that’s just one of them’ added Jack ‘imagine what a million of them could do.’

‘I’d rather not if you don’t mind’ commented Joan thoughtfully.

The three of them then worked alongside all the expert engineers
, scientists, skilled technicians and mechanics to create a prototype catapult that could be operated manually.

Several hours later
, they were pulling it along with two horses borrowed from a farmer, to test out the new weapon on the creature itself. Then Stuart sent news to General O’Dowd so he could attend and witness the test himself.

‘It reminds me of something the Romans used
to use’ commented Jack as he stared at it.

‘That’s what I based it
upon’ commented Joan ‘after all they were the ultimate fighting machine before anyone discovered electricity or invented firearms.’

‘Yes, I guess there’s a kind of logic in that’ smiled Stuart.

‘Yes,
our
ultimate fighting machine verses
theirs
’ smiled Jack.

Soon they had positioned the catapult on the
very edge of the pit and General O’Dowd stood there closely inspecting it.

‘It looks a bit
crude, can it really work?’ he questioned.

‘It’s incredibly powerful, General O’Dowd’ explained
Joan ‘don’t be fooled by its appearance, General, its projectile could easily pierce the armour plating of one of your modern tanks.’

‘Really?’ remarked the General
, now looking quite impressed. ‘What does it fire then?’ he inquired and Stuart handed him one of the arrows.

‘It’s made from steel, is four foot long and has a toughened steel tip, very
quick and easy to mass produce’ Joan explained.

‘And the catapult itself would be too’ added Jack.

‘OK
, let’s see if it works then’ ordered the General.

Joan had fitted the modern day catapult with
the same manual sights used on modern day artillery weapons and she lined the creature up in the sights as Jack readied himself to pull the trigger.

‘Looking at how fast the creature moves around
, I reckon it will be easier if the person on the sights also pulls the trigger’ suggested Joan and so Jack handed the trigger to her.

‘Are you OK with this?’ asked Stuart and Joan nodded.

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ she smiled ‘I’m confident it’ll work.’

‘No, I meant operating the machinery?’ questioned Stuart.

‘Stuart, I’
ve won my University’s top marksman gold medal award for target shooting three years running!’ she smiled.

‘Yes, so don’t piss her off
, because she’s a crack shot’ joked Jack.

‘I think that qualifies her enough’ commented General O’Dowd.

Joan
now carefully lined up the sights in an area the creature kept regularly walking passed.

Strangely enough
, the creature itself now stopped and looked up at the weapon as it roared, spat and screamed angrily at it defiantly.

‘It’s almost as if
it’s taunting us’ commented Stuart.

‘Not for much longer
it’s not’ replied Joan and only seconds later she fired off the catapult’s arrow.

It flew down and immediately hit the creature sending it backwards to the floor in a
huge cloud of concrete dust!

‘Has it done it? Have we
killed it?’ puzzled Jack instantly as no one could see a thing.

Then
, as the dust gradually cleared they could see the creature lying on the base of the pit with the arrow skewered right through the centre of its chest.

An instant cheer went up from everyone
watching!

‘Well done you three’ smiled General O’Dowd
now happily nodding his approval.

Then he looked around at someone behind him.

‘Sergeant, I want these weapons mass produced at lightening fast speed and get me the President on the phone back at the camp.’

‘Right away, Sir’ saluted the soldier before
quickly getting onto a bicycle and riding off.

‘Get some men down there and have that thing brought up so we can have it examined’ ordered the General
, now looking very pleased with the outcome.

He then went to light a celebratory cigar.

‘What the?’ he puzzled as he soon discovered that even dead the c
reature still prevented anything from being ignited.

‘But how’s that
even possible?’ he demanded.

‘It must mean that the creature’s ability to neutralise our electricity and prevent anything being ignited
around it, is inbuilt within itself rather than it being some kind of external gadget they use’ Stuart attempted to explain. ‘Fascinating’ he added curiously.

‘Fascinating? Might I remind you again, Professor Keys that
good people are dying out there!’ General O’Dowd stated angrily before storming off.

‘Oh well, we pleased him for at least
half a minute’ shrugged Stuart.

‘Never mind
him’ smiled Jack ‘at least we’ve found a way to fight back and that’s got to be something to be pleased about.’

‘Yes
you’re right’ Stuart agreed and he smiled at all the scientists behind them. ‘Well done everyone!’ he told them as they all smiled back and applauded excitedly.

‘Seriously
though’ questioned Joan ‘will this really be enough to stop them?’

Both Stuart and Jack now looked at each other.

‘The sheer numbers
we’ve seen from the airship I’d have to say, probably not’ admitted Stuart.

‘It’s a start though’ smiled Jack.

‘Yes, that my friend it is!’ nodded Stuart
happily.

Meanwhile, two soldiers had abseiled down into the pit
in order to attach some rope around the creature so it could then be pulled out.

‘CAREFUL!’ shouted Joan,
concerned that the creature might not be completely dead. ‘It could be just playing dead’ she suggested.

‘WHAT? WITH A DIRTY GREAT ARROW
STUCK RIGHT THROUGH IT?’ questioned one of the soldiers as he shouted up to her.

‘IF IT’S AN INSECT IT COULD FIGHT EVEN WITH LIMBS AMPUTATED
! ANTS DO!’ she shouted back down to them.

The
two soldiers just looked at each other and then worked very cautiously, but there was no movement from the creature now. Instead, a trail of inky black semi fluid just poured out from the open wound in its body.

‘YEAH, IT’S DEFINITELY DEAD!’ shouted up one of the soldiers.

‘GOOD! THEN LET’S GET IT
OUT OF THERE AND BACK TO OUR MAKE SHIFT LABORATORY WITHOUT DELAY!’ shouted Stuart, but of course, there were immediate problems as nothing electric, petrol driven or otherwise would work anywhere near the creature, so even a simple task like pulling it up from the bottom of the pit became a major headache. It resulted in it taking over ten soldiers to manually haul the creature up instead.

Then upon attempting to hitch up the two horses used to pull the catapult, they then discovered the horses refused to go anywhere near the creature’s dead body.

‘
Well have to lift it onto a trailer and push it back ourselves’ suggested Stuart.

A mobile autopsy room had been set up
inside the makeshift army camp, but of course, the moment they carried the creature inside, all the electricity immediately went off and no equipment of any type would work.

Over a dozen doctors and scientists poured in to study the creature’s
dead body, but within ten minutes two of them had to be rushed to hospital with serious burns from the creature’s leaking blood.

Another scientist was then suddenly hit in the neck, when a sharp shard broke off of the creature’s strong almost impenetrable exterior body shell.

Only second
s later, another scientist had been completely impaled on an apparent close range defence mechanism that suddenly shot out of the creature’s chest!

All in all
, it wasn’t going at all well.

The Pentagon had requisitioned the services of one of America’s leading surgeons and after an hour he emerged and looked rather downcast.

‘I’m, afraid people
, it’s not looking good’ he explained. ‘The creature has an exoskeleton that makes most motor cyclist’s helmets look like Swiss cheese, it’s incredibly tough. Too tough in fact for us to break into by hand, even with the sharpest of tools and without any electric tools I can’t see how we’ll ever break into its most important skull area. We turned to gas powered equipment believing that would work, but once again that doesn’t work either. So far, no one can explain quite how this animal, whatever it is, can possibly do all this. My conclusion so far, Gentlemen, is I cannot see any other way of killing these creatures other than by using the crude weapon you have already devised’ he finally concluded.

‘But what about
the electricity?’ a scientist asked.

‘W
ithout first discovering a way of breaking into the animal’s skull, we are unable to find any explanation for its ability to prevent electricity from working, the same as the gas powered equipment or candles for that matter. The only thing I can suggest is that it is a natural form of defence the animal has perhaps developed over many thousands of years. The Ultimate form of defence in fact’ nodded the surgeon in admiration of it. ‘One thing I can say for certain is this animal’s whole design is quite remarkable. In my humble opinion, from purely a warrior’s point of view, it is as close to genius as it is physically possible to be. With its ability to prevent any powered cutters or blades working on its body, it is doubtful whether we will
ever
be able to fully understand it’s ability to do all these things’ he finally admitted ‘but we’ll keep on trying different things anyway’ he assured them.

‘But what is it? Is it an animal?’ asked another scientist.

The surgeon shrugged.

‘It’s hard to say. By its appearance it looks more of an insect, but certainly no insect of this size has eve
r existed on Earth’ he answered.

‘Then you’re saying it’s
definitely an alien? An extra terrestrial?’ queried someone else.

The surgeon paused for a moment.

‘It is difficult
to say for certain’ he admitted ‘that is not my field of expertise. I will say however, this is the most remarkable creature I have ever examined.’

Then he hesitated for a moment and looked deep in thought.

‘It possibly suggests it’s a far higher form of life than indeed our own, far more advanced and technically superior’ he commented.

‘You
can’t really believe that?’ asked another scientist looking quite astounded.

‘Well look at the evidence
for yourself’ the surgeon suggested. ‘It clearly has intelligence of a kind, be it a very violently one, but then many of our own most advanced cultures were also very violent and barbaric by nature too’ he argued. ‘Gentleman, it has technology way beyond our understanding in its demonstrating the ability to disable all of our own technology and modern weaponry’ he finally concluded.

‘Y
ou were right, Stuart’ nodded Jack as he stood there next to him listening to the head Surgeon’s conclusions ‘that massive building we saw definitely
is
their space ship.’

Joan pulled them both to one side and whispered to them.

‘You realise this means we’ve been invaded
!’ she uttered.

‘Holy cow!’ uttered Jack. Then he realised what he’d just said and began back peddling ‘oh, I didn’t mean you, Joan’ he uttered feebly.

‘At least we still have your sense of humour to keep us going, Jack’ she laughed and soon they were all laughing together.

‘I wonder if they have a sense of humour?’ puzzled Jenny.

‘Well if they do
, they’re laughing at us right now’ replied her father.

‘Do y
ou really think they’ve invaded Earth though?’ Jack questioned, now looking deadly serious again.

‘It could
be, Jack’ nodded Stuart ‘though to be honest, I’m just praying that’s not the case’ he commented.

Gene
ral O’Dowd, having now heard the bad news from the country’s leading surgeon now marched over to him.